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Incumbent Uzbek president wins new term in snap election with token opposition

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:55:47 GMT

TALLINN, Estonia (AP) — Uzbekistan’s incumbent president, Shavkat Mirziyoyev, has overwhelmingly won a new seven-year term in a snap election in which he faced three weak opponents, preliminary results showed Monday.Mirziyoyev received more than 87% of the vote and each of the challengers about 4%, the country’s national elections commission said.Sunday’s vote followed a constitutional referendum that extended presidential terms from five to seven years.In 2021, Mirziyoyev was elected to his second five-year term, the limit allowed by the constitution at the time. A set of constitutional amendments approved in April’s plebiscite allowed him to begin the count of terms anew and run for two more, raising the possibility that he could stay in office until 2037.Since coming to power in 2016 after the death of longtime dictator Islam Karimov, Mirziyoyev has introduced a slew of political and economic reforms that eased some of the draconian policies of his predece...

Dutch prime minister says he will leave politics after next election

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:55:47 GMT

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, the Netherlands’ longest serving premier, said Monday he will leave politics after a general election sparked by his government’s resignation.Rutte, the leader of the conservative People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy, or VVD, announced his decision at a hastily arranged parliamentary debate.“Yesterday morning I made a decision that I will not be available again as a leader of the VVD. When a new Cabinet takes office after the elections, I will leave politics,” he said.Rutte’s four-party ruling coalition resigned Friday after failing to agree on a package of measures to rein in migration.No date has yet been set for the election.The Associated Press

The Russian military chief who was targeted in a June rebellion has surfaced in a video

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:55:47 GMT

Russia’s Defense Ministry released a video Monday of the country’s military chief, the first time Gen. Valery Gerasimov has been shown since the leader of a mercenary army sought his dismissal during a brief rebellion.In the video, Gerasimov is shown hearing a report from the chief of staff of Russia’s aerospace forces and calling for improvement in identifying the location of Ukrainian missiles. During last month’s short-lived revolt, the head of private defense company Wagner repeatedly denounced Gerasimov, who serves as chief of the general staff of the Russian armed forces, and Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu for denying supplies to his fighters in Ukraine.Wagner leader Yevgeny Prigozhin and his mercenaries forces entered the Russian city of Rostov-on-Don on June 23 and took control of the headquarters of Russia’s southern military command. Wagner forces also moved toward Moscow, encountering little resistance. Prigozhin claimed that the uprising was...

Japan defends neutrality of IAEA report on Fukushima water release plan as minister visits plant

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:55:47 GMT

TOKYO (AP) — Japan’s industry minister visited the tsunami-wrecked Fukushima nuclear power plant on Monday to see equipment that would be used in the planned release into the sea of treated radioactive water to ensure the safety of the controversial plan, while demonstrators, including many from South Korea, rallied against it.The Japanese government defended the neutrality of the United Nations nuclear agency’s final report that concluded Japan’s water release plan met international safety standards, denying allegations that Japan pressured the International Atomic Energy Agency into publishing only favorable results.Economy and Industry Minister Yasutoshi Nishimura visited the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant Monday morning to see key equipment, including an emergency shutdown system, days after the Japanese regulatory authority granted a permit for the operator and the IAEA said the environmental impact from the water release would be negligible.The government and the ...

Iran sentences rapper to more than 6 years in prison over protests, supporters say

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:55:47 GMT

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iran has sentenced a popular rapper to six years and three months in prison over his participation in protests that rocked the country last year, his supporters said Monday.A social media account run by supporters of Toomaj Salehi announced the sentence, as did Ye-One Rhie, a member of the German parliament who has campaigned on his behalf. There was no immediate word from Iranian authorities.Salehi was among thousands of mostly young Iranians who took to the streets last fall after the death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old woman who had been arrested by Iran’s morality police for allegedly violating the country’s strict Islamic dress code. The protests spread across the country and quickly escalated into calls for the overthrow of the Islamic Republic. Salehi expressed support for the protests in songs and videos that were widely circulated online.Authorities launched a heavy crackdown in which over 500 people were killed and nearly 20,0...

In the news today: Premiers meet to discuss new health care money, Trudeau in Latvia

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:55:47 GMT

Here is a roundup of stories from The Canadian Press designed to bring you up to speed on what you need to know today …Premiers meet to discuss use of new health dollars …Provincial and territorial premiers are kicking off a three-day meeting in Winnipeg today in which the chaos in Canada’s health care systems will be front and centre.They’re gathering to discuss how to use $46 billion in new health funding that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau offered in February, in exchange for provinces and territories committing to targeted reforms.All but Quebec have accepted the funding offer, but none have submitted plans on the targets and timelines they’ll use to turn the new funding into fixes for Canada’s ailing but beloved public-health care programs.The premiers will also tackle economic issues and affordability during their meetings, which take place as Trudeau visits eastern Europe to discuss defence issues.—Here’s what else we’re watching ̷...

Hong Kong’s newly named Roman Catholic cardinal wants reconciliation and more hope for young people

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:55:47 GMT

HONG KONG (AP) — Hong Kong’s newly named Roman Catholic cardinal said Monday that he hopes for reconciliation and wants the city to give young people more hope following the economic downturn and a campaign to crush a pro-democracy movement.On Sunday, Pope Francis announced he had chosen 21 new cardinals, including Hong Kong Bishop Stephen Sau-yan Chow, 64. Chow said it was somewhat unbelievable to learn that he was picked, and that he felt it is a new mission that God assigned to him through the pope. The ceremony to formally install him as a cardinal will be held in September. “For Hong Kong, (I hope) the city can have more reconciliation,” he told reporters on Monday. “This is what I hope (we) can achieve.”Beijing and the Vatican severed diplomatic ties in 1951 following the Communist Party’s rise to power and the expulsion of foreign priests. For decades, the Vatican and China have experienced tensions alternating with improvement of relations over China’s insi...

AFN takes tumultuous road to annual meeting after ousting national chief

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:55:47 GMT

Hundreds of Indigenous leaders are to gather in Halifax this week for the Assembly of First Nations annual meetingas the advocacy organization tries to forge a path forward after the tumultuous leadership and ousting of its national chief. “I think this is another opportunity to try to reset and get some work done,” said Scott McLeod, chief of Nipissing First Nation in Ontario. Former national chief RoseAnne Archibald has said she may attend the meeting, scheduled to take place Tuesday through Thursday, and is asking for chiefs to reinstate her. Archibald was voted out during a special chiefs assembly on June 28 that also dealt with a human resources investigation related to complaints AFN staff filed against her. The resolution passed with support from about 70 per cent of those who took part in the virtual meeting.McLeod voted to oust the former national chief after learning the summary of the human resources investigation. It reviewed five complaints against Archibald and f...

No way of ‘adjudicating facts’ in deals between corrupt firms and prosecutors: judge

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:55:47 GMT

When Philippines businessman Rizalino Espino was named as a participant in a bribery scandal involving a Canadian company, he assumed his day in court meant that a judge would hear him out and weigh his version of the facts.Instead, it didn’t matter what evidence his lawyer presented.A judge in Quebec wrote in May that there was “no possibility of adjudicating facts” in the case, in which the court approved a remediation agreement between federal prosecutors and a Quebec forensic technology firm that did business for years in the Philippines. Remediation agreements — the Canadian version of deferred prosecution deals — are a new part of the legal landscape, that were supposed to make it easier to bring corrupt companies to justice, while allowing them to avoid prosecution.But Espino’s experience highlights a potential flaw in the process: the judges who decide whether to approve the deals are unable to consider whether the agreed facts that underpin the agree...

Premiers meeting in Winnipeg to discuss use of new health dollars, affordability

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:55:47 GMT

Provincial and territorial premiers are kicking off a three-day meeting in Winnipeg today in which the chaos in Canada’s health care systems will be front and centre.They’re gathering to discuss how to use $46 billion in new health funding that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau offered in February, in exchange for provinces and territories committing to targeted reforms.All but Quebec have accepted the funding offer, but none have submitted plans on the targets and timelines they’ll use to turn the new funding into fixes for Canada’s ailing but beloved public-health care programs.Canadian Medical Association president-elect Dr. Kathleen Ross says health care must remain at the top of the premier’s agenda at the three-day meeting.She says little has changed over the last few months when it comes to understaffed hospitals, shuttered emergency rooms and excessive backlogs.The premiers will also tackle economic issues and affordability during their meetings, wh...